


Rebuilding Bridges

by LuckyLadybug



Category: Mannix
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Male Friendship, Missing Scene, Private Investigators
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-09
Updated: 2015-05-09
Packaged: 2018-03-29 16:25:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3902977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuckyLadybug/pseuds/LuckyLadybug
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Early season 2. Joe's parting from Intertect and Lew was not pleasant. Peggy thinks that's ridiculous.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rebuilding Bridges

**Author's Note:**

> The characters are not mine and the story is! This takes place around the start of season 2. In my multi-chapter story All That Glitters Is Not Gold, I said that Joe’s departure from Intertect was on friendly terms. I’d forgotten about the season 2 episode Pressure Point, where both Parker and Joe indicate that the parting was less than amiable. It’s too sad to think that it was left like that for the rest of the series, so I decided to write this. There are a couple of slight references to a present-day setting, since I don’t feel the series has to be a period piece and I get a kick out of imagining Lew’s enthusiasm over modern technology.

Lew Wickersham was stressed.

He had been stressed for weeks, ever since Joe Mannix had quit Intertect for real amidst a heated argument. Now Joe refused to so much as drop by for a “Hello, how are you?” He had procured his independent license and had set up shop in the San Fernando Valley, in a place called Paseo Verde.

Lew knew Joe’s secretary Peggy, since Joe had been friends with Peggy’s husband for several years before his death and sometimes they had all had occasion to meet. Peggy was the one who had dropped by to tell Lew what Joe was up to. She knew that they had been close friends for years and thought the whole idea of their friendship falling apart over this was preposterous.

Lew agreed, really. But both he and Joe were stubborn and prideful and neither wanted to make the first move.

On the one hand, Lew was furious that Joe had left. It felt like a slap in the face, a betrayal, after everything they had been through together. Joe had always come back before. But this time he wasn’t going to. Lew knew that.

Deep down, he was hurt.

He reached for the aspirin on his desk. It seemed like he was taking a lot more of it lately. Shaking out two pills in his hand, he shoved them into his mouth and went for a glass of water from the water cooler.

Intertect had been built just fine without Joe there. Joe hadn’t come along until it was already making a name for itself. Joe had ended up Lew’s best agent, but he was so unorthodox and always seemed to end up in some disastrous situation or another.

Really, Lew should be glad to be rid of him.

He paused, the now-empty cup in his hand. Lew had actually said that to Joe on that last day. Joe had responded with, _“Well, that’s just great, because I’m glad to be rid of you, too!”_

Lew could still hear the door slamming in his mind.

He frowned, slowly walking back to the desk. He and Joe didn’t act like that with each other. Their arguments had never been so virulent, except during that one horrible time when Lew had been having a bad reaction to steroids and he and Joe had ended up tearing one of the rooms apart during their resulting fight.

He set the cup on the desk, barely remembering he had brought it over instead of throwing it into the garbage. Lew hadn’t been too proud to admit to his wrongdoings back then. He had been stricken with guilt and sickened horror over what he had said and done. He should feel the same way now.

Really, now that he was thinking about it with a calmer mind, he did. And it was far past time to do something about it.

Reaching for the phone, he lifted the receiver and dialed Joe’s new number. Peggy had given it to him when she had come by. He had memorized it, wanting to call many times even though he hadn’t broken down his pride enough to do so. That was starting to make him ashamed.

Maybe it hadn’t been just for that reason, though. Lew was the type who often didn’t like to face horrible problems and preferred to sweep them under the rug. He still didn’t know the details of many of Joe’s mishaps on cases, and sometimes he wished he didn’t know everything that he had said and done when reacting to the steroids. Maybe he was afraid of calling Joe and then being rejected because Joe was still too angry and hurt to give him the time of day. After all, Joe preferred to face problems and he hadn’t made a single move to deal with this one. That seemed quite telling.

Lew considered hanging up, but for some reason he kept hanging on, listening to the ring and growing increasingly certain no one was going to pick up.

It rang several more times before a harried Peggy answered. “Hello?”

Suddenly Lew felt awkward. Now he partly wanted to hang up without identifying himself. Joe rebelled so much against modern technology, he probably didn’t even have caller I.D. But then, scowling, Lew pushed up his glasses and said, “Hello, Mrs. Fair.” He had already been juvenile in the argument with Joe. There was no need to further any infantile behavior.

“Mr. Wickersham!” The happiness in Peggy’s voice could be heard clearly through the phone. “I’m so glad you called.”

“Yes, well . . . is Mannix there?” Lew asked. The awkwardness had not abated.

“I’m sorry, he’s not.” Peggy sounded regretful now. “But he has a car phone, like I told you before. I could call him.”

“Nevermind,” Lew sighed. “This really shouldn’t be said over the phone anyway. When do you expect him back?”

“Well . . .” Peggy was sighing in resignation now. “One of the things I’ve been learning about Mr. Mannix is that you really can’t ever expect him back by a certain time.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” Lew said wryly. “Alright. How about you call me when he comes in and maybe I’ll . . . come by or something.”

“That would be wonderful,” Peggy said warmly. “I know he’ll be happy to see you.”

“I’m not so sure of that,” Lew retorted. “We both did a pretty good job of blowing things to Kingdom Come the last time we saw each other.”

“And it’s high time you both did some repair work,” Peggy answered. “I remember how relaxed and happy Mr. Mannix used to be when he came around to see my husband. He hasn’t been like that since I started to work for him. I can’t even bring up Intertect or you without him getting defensive and prickly. You should have heard him when I admitted that I’d gone to see Parker about a little computer work I wanted done.”

It had been the same there, Lew knew. His secretary Chris and all the agents had quickly learned that Mannix was a sore spot Lew didn’t want aggravated. Just mentioning the renegade agent’s name had been setting Lew off.

“You should have heard me when Parker admitted the same thing,” Lew said. “One of the stenographers wisecracked that it sounded like the 1812 Overture in here. The cannons, at least.”

“Well, I for one would like to see the end of the war,” Peggy declared. “And whether Mr. Mannix will admit to it or not, he would too.”

“Alright,” Lew said with a slight smile. “Like I said, let me know when he comes back.”

“I will,” Peggy promised.

“But don’t tell him I called,” Lew quickly interjected. “Then he’ll probably be wound up tighter than a watch when I get there. If I just blow in, maybe I can smooth things over before he blows his stack.”

“Got it,” Peggy smiled.

Lew sighed as he hung up. The thought of an imminent balm to the hurt and anger he had been feeling for weeks was enough to perk him up with a certain hope. Joe was his friend, had been for years. Lew didn’t want to see that end . . . if it hadn’t already. He hoped that by sincerely apologizing, he could bring some of that balm to Joe as well.

****

It was almost evening when Peggy called back. Lew was looking over reports and preparing to leave for the day when the phone rang. “Hello?” he almost demanded into the mouthpiece.

“Mr. Mannix is finally back, Mr. Wickersham,” Peggy said. Something in her voice sounded hesitant.

“Do you think he’s going to stay there for a while?” Lew asked. He knew how easily and swiftly Joe could pop in and out of locations.

“I’m not sure. He seems tense, in any case.”

Lew sighed to himself. In spite of Peggy’s earlier confidence that Joe would be receptive to seeing him, when it came right down to it she now wasn’t sure. But Lew wasn’t about to give up so easily now that the idea had been planted and had been growing all day long.

“I’ll be there within thirty minutes,” he said.

Parker, still working at the supercomputers, looked up with a start as Lew marched out of his office and through the computer room in determination. “You sure look like you’re a man with a mission, Mr. Wickersham,” he commented.

“I am,” Lew replied. “Goodnight, Parker.”

“Goodnight, Sir,” Parker said, clearly curious but not about to press. That wasn’t something you did with Llewellyn Wickersham under the best of circumstances, and the last several weeks could hardly be called the best.

Lew remained lost in thought as he retrieved his car from the parking garage and started out into the last rays of a late-summer evening. He gripped the steering wheel, troubled.

Maybe this wouldn’t work. Maybe Joe really wasn’t ready to listen. He wasn’t the type to hold a grudge, but Lew knew he had been deeply hurt, as Lew himself had been. Maybe he had felt so betrayed that he wasn’t about to give that up yet.

Lew had met Joe around thirteen years ago. Intertect had already been building a name for itself as one of the best places for private investigators to sign up with if they were highly skilled and trained, yet were having trouble getting business out on their own. Joe had convinced Lew to start also accepting fresh faces who needed to get their three years of working for a private investigating firm under their belt before they could get their licenses.

They had always clashed about the usefulness of the supercomputers that Intertect was especially famous for. Each had come to see more value in the other’s point-of-view than he was willing to admit, but the disagreements went on. Everyone at Intertect was used to and even amused by the discussions.

It was amazing that Joe had stayed with Intertect as long as he had, really. He had always been a lone wolf. He wouldn’t have even needed to stay at all; he already had his three years’ experience from some private eye friend of his. But the strange circumstances that had brought them together on a case of Lew’s that had ended up involving both of them had resulted in Joe agreeing to join Intertect for a while. He had often threatened to leave and occasionally had, but he had always come back again. Lew had allowed himself to believe that it would continue that way indefinitely.

He still remembered in lurid detail the vicious argument when Joe had brought his resignation for real. The case they had just come back from had been stressful, and Joe had been furious at something Lew had done that he felt had held him back and resulted in injury to one of the principles involved. Lew had felt that it would have happened anyway and that it wasn’t his fault. He had also felt that Joe had been too reckless, and that if either of them had caused unnecessary problems on the case, it had been Joe. They had both been angry, but Lew had thought they would calm down after a while and everything would be as usual. Instead, Joe had brought his resignation, that had tipped Lew’s patience off the scale, and Joe’s patience had unraveled shortly afterward.

Maybe if Lew had remained calm, Joe wouldn’t have stayed away for good.

He told himself that sometimes, in his darkest, bitterest moments, but really, he was pretty sure it wouldn’t have made a difference. Joe had always wanted to be out on his own.

So why hadn’t he gone before? What had kept him coming back?

Guilt swept over Lew with a vengeance. Joe had come back for him. He didn’t like the computers or working with the other agents, but he liked Lew.

Maybe, then, it _was_ his fault.

By the time he arrived in the Valley and was searching for the place called Paseo Verde, he was thoroughly distressed. He spotted the Mexican-style buildings at last and pulled in near number 17, next to a dark green convertible. Joe’s, he supposed. Joe always did like convertibles.

He was starting to wonder what he was even going to say. He had spent so much time thinking on what had happened and why it had happened and if he could have stopped it from happening that he hadn’t taken enough time to wonder how to word an apology. He’d had one in mind earlier, but these new thoughts rendered it useless. If it was his fault that Joe had left for good, how would he ever adequately apologize? Or get over his own self-loathing? Joe had been his best agent, and also his best friend. He hated to lose both.

A horrific crash from inside brought his attention sharply back to the present. Shocked and bewildered, he rushed to the door and hauled it open. Peggy, in the outer office, was frantically on the phone, trying to call the police.

“What’s going on in here?!” Lew cried.

“Four men just burst in and started beating Mr. Mannix up!” Peggy cried, hanging up the phone. “And one of them must have cut the phone line!”

Lew swore in his mind. Without another thought he dashed into the inner office, narrowly missing a thug practically sailing overhead.

Joe was right in the middle of the fray, of course, punching one guy and karate-chopping another. Then the third knocked him down and the others recovered, moving to start pounding on him before he could rise.

Lew rushed forward, delivering a harsh chop to the nearest grunt. The fourth, attempting to re-enter the room, was suddenly hit over the head by a vase, courtesy of Peggy. He crumpled to the floor.

Joe was starting to get up now, stunned and confused and in pain. Before he could really process what was going on, the second thug punched him in the gut. He doubled over with a gasp.

Lew punched the thug out in the next moment. Then, without warning, a fifth man started clattering down the stairs in the upstairs apartment. Lew ran over, gun drawn, and tried to stop him from coming down the rest of the way. “Stop right there,” he ordered.

The fifth man glowered. “Are you a cop?”

“No, but it won’t be long and they’ll be here, with all the noise your boys have been making,” Lew retorted.

Unimpressed, the thug struck out, trying to kick Lew’s gun out of his hand. He succeeded, but Lew immediately grabbed his leg and forcefully pulled him down.

One of the other thugs suddenly jumped Lew from behind. He fell back, immediately trying to cast the guy off. Finally he managed to get hold of the thug’s wrist and judo-flipped him to the floor.

The fifth thug had had enough. He turned, running back up the stairs to escape the way he had entered. Lew ran up the stairs after him, angry and not about to let him get away.

The thug turned abruptly, fighting against Lew as he took hold. They were still too near to the stairs. When the thug’s balance was suddenly lost in the struggle, they both tumbled to the bottom.

It was only a few steps, really, but Lew hit the floor in a highly unpleasant manner and struck his head on something hard. Stars exploded in his vision and then faded to black.

****

Joe had not been having a particularly good day. People were blocking his every attempt to learn something on his current case, he had been thrown out of one suspect’s house, and now he had come back home only to be attacked by a mob. By the time they were all either limping away or tied up on the floor waiting for the police, he was more than ready for a drink.

The sight of two other people on the floor, over by the stairs, stopped him. “Lew?!” he exclaimed in disbelief. He knew someone had rushed to his aid, but in all the commotion he had not seen who it was. He had assumed it was a neighbor or maybe Albie. Never once had he even considered . . .

“Lew!” Forgetting his confusion and just focusing on the fact that Lew wasn’t responding or getting up, Joe ran over and knelt down next to his former boss.

“Mr. Mannix!” Peggy was in the doorway, worried as well. She blanched at the sight of Lew on the floor. “Oh no. Is Mr. Wickersham badly hurt?!”

“I don’t know.” Joe was shaken, grimly discovering a bump under Lew’s hair. “Peggy, what’s he even doing here?!”

“What makes you think I’d know?” Peggy retorted, hurrying to dampen a cloth with water.

“He had to come by you when he came in,” Joe said. “And I know you think the way we parted is ridiculous.”

Peggy picked her way over the dazed thugs and bent down by Joe, handing him the cloth. “It is ridiculous,” she declared. “You and Mr. Wickersham have been friends for years. How can you just throw that away over something so stupid?”

Joe stiffened. Not answering, he looked down at Lew and started to brush the cloth over his face. When Lew still didn’t acknowledge it, worry and panic started to bubble in Joe’s heart. “Come on, Lew,” he whispered. “Wake up.”

Peggy reached over and picked up Lew’s glasses from where they had fallen. “The phone line’s been cut,” she said in concern. “I can’t call for an ambulance.”

“That figures,” Joe scowled. “Peggy, go outside to the car phone. Call from there.”

“Right.” Peggy stood, leaving the glasses on Joe’s desk before departing the office.

Joe paused for a moment to tie up the thug lying unconscious on the floor near Lew. Then he returned, resuming running the cloth over Lew’s face.

“What are you doing here, Lew?” he asked morosely. “How did you even know where to come?”

The answer came in an instant. _Peggy._ Oh, Lew could have looked up Joe’s new address on one of his precious supercomputers, but somehow Joe had the feeling that Peggy was the source instead. It made so much sense.

She had talked to him so much about the argument ever since she had realized there was a problem—which had been almost as soon as he had hired her. She had already known Joe casually because of her husband, but he suspected that even if they had been strangers, she might have said something. It wasn’t in her nature to keep quiet about anything she didn’t like.

_“Mr. Mannix, you’ve known Mr. Wickersham for over ten years! Isn’t that worth fighting for?”_

He remembered that the last time when she had said that, earlier that day, he had been sitting in his chair, which he had quickly swiveled away from her. _“He’s a stuffed shirt who likes to play Big Brother with his security cameras and managed to ruin everything on my cases with his rules. He can’t be happy unless he can micromanage everything around him.”_

Peggy had simply folded her arms and kept standing there. _“Now, you know that isn’t true. He likes order because he wants his agents to be the best they can be. And he gave you a great deal of leeway most times, maybe even times when he shouldn’t have, because he **trusted** you and **believed** in you. There’s a lot of bosses who wouldn’t do things like that.”_

Joe knew that, all too well. But right then he hadn’t wanted to give up the argument. _“. . . He changed.”_

 _“Was he the only one?”_ Peggy had retorted. _“You know, it takes two people to ruin a marriage. I say the same thing goes for friendships. And I don’t think that what happened to yours would have happened unless both of you put a lot into breaking it up.”_

Joe hadn’t liked how Peggy had made him feel put on the spot. What he had hated the most was knowing she was right. The things he had said to Lew made him cringe as he thought about them. He had accused Lew basically of being one of the most inhuman people possible. Instead, he knew that Lew was very human.

On the other hand, in the heat of the moment, Lew had called him a reckless brute who liked to fight first and ask questions later. He had told Joe that Joe didn’t have any thought or feeling for the damage he was causing Intertect with all that fighting. And he had said how sick he was of always having to worry what Joe was going to do next. He had wondered how Joe’s P.I. friend Harry Forrest had ever managed to keep hold of the patience necessary to train him.

 _“I don’t even know how to fix it now,”_ Joe had said at last to Peggy in disgust.

Peggy had been undaunted. _“Of course you do. Call him up and say you’re sorry. I’ll dial the number for you.”_

 _“Say **I’m** sorry?! What about him?!”_ Joe had turned back to face her, displeased by her suggestion.

_“I’m sure he’s sorry too.”_

_“Yeah, well, he could make the first move and say so.”_

Peggy had looked exasperated. _“You’re both behaving like children!”_

They had been, and Joe had known it.

_“In your line of work, there’s always the possibility that something could go wrong. What if you find out someday that Mr. Wickersham has been killed and you never had the chance to make it right?”_

Peggy had sounded sad when she said that. As far as Joe knew, she and her husband had parted on good terms, but with him gone now, she probably still regretted arguments they’d had.

The picture she had painted had haunted Joe. Maybe he would have broke down and called Lew or gone over if it hadn’t been that a client had walked in and presented him with a troubling case he had decided to take. That had taken priority. So now he was left with a room full of stunned lackeys and his unconscious former boss.

Thank God Lew was still alive.

But still, why? Why _was_ Lew there? He had been just as angry as Joe. Maybe more. They hadn’t had any contact for weeks, ever since Joe had left. Of course Joe hadn’t wanted things to be left that way indefinitely, but until that day he hadn’t cooled down enough to even think of going to Intertect or Lew’s house and saying he was sorry.

As he had told Peggy, he had really wanted Lew to make the first move.

And had he? Was that why he was here?

Joe shook his head. He shouldn’t have waited for Lew to do something. If Peggy’s grim future had come true and Lew was lying here dead instead of knocked out, Joe never would have forgiven himself. He had to assume Lew would feel the same way if the situation were reversed.

“You sure showed up at the right time,” he spoke again, his tone bittersweet. “You saved me again. How many is that now?”

“I’ve lost count,” Lew mumbled.

“Lew!” Joe took the cloth away and gripped Lew’s shoulder. “You’re awake? How bad are you hurt?”

“Not too bad . . . I think.” Dizzy and dazed, Lew slowly started to push himself up.

Joe grabbed for him. “Easy, Lew. You were out for several minutes!”

Lew tried to sit up on the floor but ended up slumping against Joe. “Well, it looks like things haven’t changed much for you,” he said.

“Yeah, I guess not.” Joe spoke somberly, but then wryly added, “Not that I really expected them to.

“Lew, what are you doing here? Did Peggy coerce you into it?”

“No,” Lew responded, his tone firm and without hesitation. “It was my idea. Although I should say that Mrs. Fair fully approved.”

“She would,” Joe grunted. “But so then you came because . . .”

“Because I wanted to apologize.” Lew pushed away from Joe and then turned to face him. “I realized today that maybe I drove you away. Maybe you would’ve come back like usual if it hadn’t been for me losing my temper when you brought your resignation.”

“Oh Lew. . . .” Joe sighed sadly. “We knew it was coming someday. I’m not a team player.”

“You were for years,” Lew retorted.

“And I was never supposed to be. I was going to apply for my license the day we met.” Joe shook his head. “Instead I ended up working for you for all those years.”

“Do you regret it?”

“No,” Joe said honestly. “But it was time to leave. I still wanted my dream of owning my own place, being my own boss. Even if it hadn’t been for the argument, I wouldn’t have come back.”

“It was that case that made you decide to leave, though.”

“Yeah,” Joe admitted. “It wasn’t really because of you, Lew. It was everything.”

Lew sighed sadly. He wasn’t sure if the burden had been relieved or not. “Are you happy here, Joe?” he asked at last.

Joe hesitated. “I thought I was happy to be on my own. In some ways, I guess I have been. There are definite perks to this. But . . .” He paused again. “What happened with us has been hanging over my head since then. Now, I know you lost it first, but it didn’t take me long to follow suit. I said some pretty rotten things to you.”

Lew winced. “I know.” Among the nastiest had been Joe’s parting words. _“I sure hope you never need a blood transfusion someday, Lew, because sometimes I doubt whether you’re human enough to even have blood running through your veins. Maybe if you have a horrible accident, they’ll make you a test subject for a computer-human hybrid, just like in the comics. You’d be a model subject! Probably too good for them, really; you’re more machine than man!”_

From Joe’s expression, he was thinking of it too. “Darn it, Lew, I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into me, to say some of the things I did.”

“We were both angry and frustrated,” Lew replied. “And maybe hurt, too? I know I was.”

“Yeah.” Joe looked down, nodding. “Yeah, me too.” He looked up again. “Lew . . . what happened to us? Do you think it can be fixed?”

“I think so,” Lew said. “I know I hope so. Joe . . .” He looked pleadingly at the other man. “After all these years, our friendship has to still mean something. I’ve been foolish and petty.”

Joe nodded. “So have I. It’s true that I’d rather not use your supercomputers after I finally broke away from them, but that wasn’t really why I was mad at Peggy for going there. I just . . . didn’t want it to look like I had to go crawling back to you for anything.”

“And I didn’t want it to look like I was bending to your every whim, especially when you weren’t working for me anymore,” Lew said. “Joe, I miss you. And Intertect’s been a lot quieter and . . . dare I say it, less interesting since you left. There isn’t any way I could convince you to come back?”

“I don’t think so, Lew.” Joe sounded and looked bittersweet now. “But I’d be happy to drop in to say Hello now and then. And maybe to get a little information from your computers, if I’m absolutely desperate.”

“You’d have to be desperate,” Lew said dryly. “But yes, Joe, I’d like that.”

“And you can feel free to visit here any time you’d like,” Joe said. “I promise things aren’t usually this hectic.” He gave a crooked smile.

“Give it time,” Lew grunted, only half-sarcastic. He smiled a bit as well. “I’d be glad to visit. I see you’ve already added a personal touch to this place.”

“That was pretty much the first thing I did,” Joe said grandly. He studied Lew in concern. “Do you think you can get up yet?”

“I think so.” Grabbing the doorframe to brace himself, Lew began to pull himself to his feet.

Joe quickly rose with him, wanting to make sure he didn’t fall. “Peggy went to call for help,” he said. “They must’ve cut the car phone line too and she had to go to a neighbor’s.”

“I’m alright, Joe,” Lew said firmly.

“You should probably still be checked out anyway,” Joe said. “That was a pretty bad bump I found.”

Lew regarded Joe in bemusement. “I can think of plenty of times when we had this conversation in reverse. And you didn’t heed my advice.”

“Well, since you gave it, that’s all the more reason for you to follow it now,” Joe replied.

Lew sighed. “It’s hard to argue with that logic.”

The door opened and Peggy hurried back into the room. “I finally got through to the police and an ambulance,” she said breathlessly. “Both of your car phones were cut. That new businessman, Roger Bard, let me use his phone.”

“That’s good, Peggy,” Joe said. “Of course, Lew here insists he doesn’t need an ambulance.”

“I don’t,” Lew interjected.

“It won’t hurt for the paramedics to look you over anyway, Mr. Wickersham,” Peggy said. “Mr. Mannix and I were both very worried about you.”

Lew sighed in resignation. “Well, since they’re already on their way.” He smiled a bit. “Thank you, Mrs. Fair.”

“It’s no trouble,” Peggy smiled. “I just hope this is the start of everything going back to normal for your friendship.”

Joe and Lew exchanged a look. “I think it is,” Joe said. “Thanks, Lew, for coming. And you, for encouraging him.” He gave Peggy a stern look that quickly lightened into a smile.

“Thank you for being willing to listen,” Lew said, collecting his glasses off the desk. “I didn’t know what kind of mood you were going to be in.”

“If you’d come in before they did, I’m not sure what would have happened,” Joe admitted. “But when I saw you on the floor and realized you’d been helping me, that pretty much cooled any angry feelings.

“By the way, Lew, how in the world did you end up on the floor in the first place?!”

“I fell down the stairs,” Lew admitted ashamedly. “I was trying to stop that guy from leaving.” He indicated the fifth thug, who was waking up and struggling against the bonds, swearing and cursing all the while.

“You fell down . . . while trying to . . .” Joe shook his head. “Lew, that sounds more like something I would have done.”

“I know.” Lew still looked embarrassed and annoyed.

“I guess I must be rubbing off on you,” Joe remarked.

Lew really didn’t look pleased by that thought. “I can assure you, I’m not going to make fighting people near stairs a habit.”

“I should hope not,” Peggy interjected. “And Mr. Mannix shouldn’t, either.”

“I don’t try to,” Joe said. “Things like that just happen.”

“A lot of things ‘just happen’,” Lew countered. “Things that shouldn’t be happening.”

“I plead Guilty on that,” Joe said, throwing up his hands. “But it’s not generally my fault.”

“And if you’re rubbing off on me, what about vice versa?” Lew said. “Why can’t you get a little of the interest in technology in your veins?”

“I have,” Joe insisted. “I have a car phone.”

“What about a little more?” Lew persisted. “At least let Mrs. Fair have a computer, if you don’t want one!”

“A computer, in this office? That’s sacrilege!”

Peggy smiled, walking away from them and looking out the window to wait for the police and the ambulance. Those two weren’t arguing now; they were bantering, and clearly enjoying it.

That was a good sign.


End file.
